Senior Director, IT/Tech Procurement

NielsenIQ•New York, NY

7d•$151,800 - $215,000•Remote

About The Position

This role develops and executes global Technology and IT procurement strategies in partnership with the Head of Procurement, CTO and CTO leadership team, Finance, Legal, Security, and other business stakeholders. It is responsible for category and sub-category strategies across areas such as enterprise software and SaaS, cloud and infrastructure, IT professional services, telecommunications, hardware, data and analytics, and emerging technologies including AI. The Senior Director leads complex global sourcing and negotiations, optimizes technology spend and commercial models, and builds strategic relationships with critical technology suppliers. The role also partners with Technology leaders on demand management, license and consumption optimization, supplier consolidation, application rationalization, commercial model optimization, and technology roadmap decisions. It establishes value creation targets, supplier performance measures, and governance for strategic partners, while identifying opportunities to reduce cost, mitigate risk, improve contractual flexibility, and enable innovation. The position serves as a trusted procurement advisor to the CTO organization and senior business leaders, leads cross-functional sourcing and supplier initiatives, and develops procurement team members. It is a US-remote role; applicants must reside in the United States at the time of application. Central or Eastern Time Zone is preferred.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Business, Technology, Supply Chain, Finance, or a related field, or equivalent relevant professional experience.
10+ years of progressive procurement experience, including significant Technology/IT procurement experience within a complex global organization.
Demonstrated experience managing and negotiating large, complex technology agreements.
Strong knowledge of several major technology categories, such as enterprise software/SaaS, cloud infrastructure, IT services, data and analytics, hardware/networking, and emerging technology/AI.
Strong understanding of technology commercial and licensing models, including subscription, consumption-based, enterprise licensing, and professional services models.
Ability to analyze technology spend, usage, licensing, and supplier economics to identify optimization opportunities.
Experience leading complex competitive sourcing initiatives and executive-level supplier negotiations.
Strong financial acumen, including the ability to develop business cases, evaluate total cost of ownership, and translate commercial structures into financial impact.
Strong understanding of sourcing processes, contract structures, and key commercial and legal considerations associated with technology agreements.
Ability to influence and challenge senior Technology and business stakeholders while maintaining collaborative relationships.
Demonstrated change-management and stakeholder-management capabilities in a global matrixed organization.
Strong executive communication and presentation skills.
Fluent in English.

Nice To Haves

Professional procurement qualification.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute global category and sub-category strategies across the Technology and IT portfolio.
Build a holistic understanding of technology spend, demand, suppliers, contractual commitments, and future technology requirements.
Align sourcing strategies with the technology roadmap and business priorities in partnership with the CTO organization and senior technology leaders.
Identify opportunities for supplier consolidation, application rationalization, license optimization, demand management, and alternative technology solutions.
Analyze market trends, supplier economics, commercial models, and industry benchmarks to inform sourcing and negotiation strategies.
Challenge specifications, consumption levels, licensing models, and supplier relationships to improve value.
Develop and present category strategies and business cases to senior executive stakeholders.
Lead competitive sourcing processes, including RFIs, RFPs, and complex global technology negotiations.
Develop multi-year sourcing strategies for strategic and high-spend technology suppliers, and communicate commercial options, risks, trade-offs, and recommendations to executives.
Develop negotiation strategies for major technology agreements and renewals; lead negotiations across software licensing, SaaS, cloud consumption, professional services, infrastructure, and other technology services.
Evaluate supplier pricing models, discounts, consumption commitments, renewal protections, and commercial benchmarks.
Negotiate contractual flexibility, including volume adjustments, true-down rights, price protections, and termination provisions.
Partner with Legal, Finance, Security, Privacy, and Technology teams to ensure appropriate commercial and contractual protections and adherence to corporate approval and signing authorities.
Establish strategic supplier management programs, conduct executive business reviews, and develop supplier scorecards and KPIs covering commercial performance, service delivery, innovation, risk, and continuous improvement.
Create value and continuous-improvement plans with strategic suppliers; develop alternative suppliers and competitive options to reduce dependency and strengthen leverage.
Partner with Technology leadership to assess emerging suppliers, technologies, and commercial models.
Analyze technology spend, contracts, consumption, and demand drivers to deliver measurable savings, cost avoidance, and other commercial value.
Work with technology owners to optimize software licenses, cloud consumption, subscription quantities, and contracted services; identify redundant technology and opportunities to consolidate suppliers and improve purchasing leverage.
Establish mechanisms to measure realized versus negotiated value and support budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning for major categories and supplier commitments.
Ensure technology agreements comply with corporate financial, security, privacy, sanctions, restricted-party, and other compliance controls.
Monitor contractual obligations, renewal dates, consumption commitments, and commercial milestones; ensure governance and adherence to global technology agreements.
Identify and mitigate supplier concentration, financial, commercial, operational, and contractual risks; proactively manage renewals and avoid unnecessary auto-renewals or unfavorable commitments.
Build relationships across Technology, Finance, Legal, Security, Privacy, and business functions; communicate complex commercial issues to executive stakeholders.
Lead cross-functional teams through strategic sourcing and supplier initiatives, and organize and deploy resources across global projects and priorities.
Coach and develop procurement team members, build commercial and technology procurement capabilities, and promote a fact-based, collaborative, commercially challenging procurement culture.